** Iran also said a female marine was among those captured.Accoring to Fars News, Alireza Afshar (pictured here) confirmed the arrest of 15 British marines by the naval force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps within the Iranian territorial waters on Friday and added that the said individuals are under prosecution and have confessed that they have aggressed against the waters of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Seyed Mohammad Ali Hosseini said the Brits were trying to cover up their illegal act and need to come clean.

Spokesman of the Iranian Foreign Ministry termed trespassing of the territorial waters of Iran by the British forces as dubious and illustrative of unusual objectives pursued by them.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Seyed Mohammad Ali Hosseini considered the illegal and interventionist entry by the British forces into the Iranian waters as a dubious act which contradicts international laws and regulations and condemned it.

He further made reference to the hostile nature of such moves and reiterated that violation of the sovereignty of other states and trespassing of their territories is illustrative of unusual objectives, contradicts international obligations and cannot be justified at all.

The Iranian foreign ministry spokesman again made reference to the efforts made by the British forces to hide and cover their illegal act and advised the British officials to compensate for their mistakes instead of trying to justify their illegal and unauthorized act.

The Times reported that British authorities fear that the 15 British sailors and Royal Marines were victims of a deliberate ambush on the disputed Shatt al-Arab waterway by Iranian Revolutionary Guards, perhaps seeking to use the captives as hostages in the increasingly tense stand-off between the West and Iran over its nuclear programme.

Aljazeera adds… A 1975 treaty gave the waters to Iraq and US and British ships commonly operate there, but Aandahl said Iran disputes Iraq’s jurisdiction over the waters.